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Crawley MP and All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Blood Cancer Chair Henry Smith has backed a campaign to raise awareness of blood cancer and put it at the forefront of the Government’s cancer plans, including highlighting the issue during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons.

Two weeks ago in this column, I wrote about welcoming the Government’s £100 m strategy to tackle rough sleeping on England's streets and to end it completely by 2027. This strategy has been widely well-received including by homelessness charities. I also mentioned the excellent work undertaken by our leading local homelessness charity Crawley Open House, and by Crawley Borough Council which has the statutory local authority function for preventing homelessness.

August is often known as the ‘silly season’ when trivial news stories are given prominence due to a lack of issues of more substance during the holiday season. This year has been true to form with some London Labour MPs absurdly criticising Jamie Oliver’s Caribbean rice as cultural appropriation, although I suspect the ‘Chicken Little’ hysteria about Brexit from various politicians (including some Labour Councillors here in Crawley) and media will continue until March next year when the UK leaves the European Union.

None of us likes to see people living and sleeping on our streets. It was estimated in 2017 that on any one given night in England, there were 4,750 people sleeping rough. The reasons behind rough sleeping are complex and each case is a personal tragedy. It is an issue that has always been with us and stopping it completely will be very challenging both for this government and future governments, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make ambitious plans to eliminate it.

Henry Smith MP has welcomed the latest figures which show that the number of people out of work is at a record low. In Crawley, the number of people who are unemployed has fallen by 1,365 – a 59 per cent drop – since 2010.

None of us like to hear about crime happening in our town, especially violent crime. The long-term trend is downwards but we do see spikes from time to time. Crime is also changing in its nature reflecting society, with more of it taking place online. I always feel that one crime is one too many but it is a reality that there has always been crime.